We'll get to do our half-way ultrasound, and we're really excited :D We haven't seen our baby since our 7 weeks appointment back in August. Back then, Baby Ratcliff was a little gummy bear-looking guy. I'm sure a lot has changed, and I can't wait to see him/her. I hope everything is okay and all the parts check out. I'm very nervous about the baby, and Derek says I'm being too worrisome. It's hard when I worry that everything I do may harm the baby or somehow negatively affect the baby's development. Just please pray for a healthy Baby Ratcliff on Monday :)
That brings me to my next topic. In some secret way, I keep hoping that the ultrasound will start and Baby Ratcliff will be waiting on us with his/her legs wide open and there won't be any way to hide it. I know, I know... I brought this on myself, but for some reason, I keep wishing I hadn't. My lack of patience is really rearing its ugly head.
Maybe it's because I've realized how little gender neutral baby gear there really is out there. I've been looking at baby clothes, and everywhere I've looked - Carter's, Baby Gap, Gymboree, The Children's Place, Macy's - all pretty much have a couple gender neutral outfits. Mostly, gender neutral stuff is covered in these less than fantastic ducks, and it really pisses me off. Who says parents want to cover their babies in ducks for the first three months of their lives? I sure as hell don't.... We may opt for the Wu-Tang onesie since it's technically gender neutral!
We've also decided to make a final decision and order bedding. We were going to go with the Carter's Forest Friends bedding I found on Diapers.com. Remember that post? Well, we're honestly very worried that it may end up being too boyish. We want something that we can easily add pink to but also easily be able to add darker shades of blue as well. I still plan to get that adorable owl wall hanging and pillow, but I think we may go for something simpler, less matchy-matchy. We found something we like on Overstock.com, and it's much cheaper than the Forest Friends set. It's all light blue and brown, and it's covered in geometric shapes. We thought that might go better with the rest of our house and the whole gender neutral thing. Any ideas?
I've also spent a good bit of time looking for other gender neutral bedding options, and there are so few - wait, so few that aren't a JUNGLE theme, bleck! - that I could scream. My friend Kerry found an awesome one on Diapers.com that she sent me and it had birds on it. The only problem is that it doesn't really go with our paint choice, and I kept worrying that a boy probably doesn't want to have a bunch of birdies all over his bed. Such a hard decision!
We're planning to do a little shopping today but mostly for holiday things. I'm going to look around and see if I find anything. We've decided upon a mattress, and I plan to order that right away. I haven't had a lot of free time lately with TAing for Ashford, the University of Phoenix hiring process, and work at SCAD. I have to go in tomorrow for our finals Midnight Breakfast. I love my job and everything, so don't think that. I just haven't had much time (even for online shopping) in the evenings when I come home and fall asleep at 8pm.
That brings me to my next topic. I've been so stinking tired lately. On Thursday night, I fell asleep at 8, tried to wake up at 8:45 to watch The Office at 9, and I ended up crying and just falling asleep. If you know me, you know I'd never fall asleep during The Office. I'm going to talk to my doctor about it since I'm concerned I may have low iron or something. As you all know (since I'm constantly reminding you), I don't really eat meat, and last week, I started craving roast beef for some reason. After I had it for lunch, I felt a bit better. We had vegetarian chili for dinner last night, and the before that, I made spinach lasagna. I guess the point is: there's my evidence for low iron. If I eat the meat, I feel better, but how do I stomach eating meat every day? We'll see.
The heartburn has been pretty intense, too. I may ask about taking Prevacid or something like that. One of my coworkers is pregnant and she started taking that recently. I also want to ask about this pregnancy acne. It's so terrible :( I thought it would clear up, and I've been using this all natural, moisturizing soap to clean my face. Nothing I do fixes it. I've heard you can take some medication for it, so I plan to ask the doctor about that as well. I know all of this is for the baby and it's worth it, but, man, it sucks.
Well, I suppose I should get to cleaning our house and these errands! I'll update on Monday with pictures from our ultrasound! Yay! :)
